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  • Glorifying God and Glorifying Mountains

    Glorifying God and Glorifying Mountains

    A friend recently asked, “What does it mean to glorify God?” It is a phrase we know and a phrase we often repeat. But what does it actually mean? How do we go about it? And in what ways may we do the very opposite? I write today from New Zealand where I have spent…

  • God of Every Grace

    God of Every Grace – The Story Behind the Song

    I do not share many guest articles but do like to do so occasionally, especially when the circumstances warrant it. This is one of those times. This article was written by Kristyn Getty as a means of explaining the context of a new hymn, “God of Every Grace.” I trust you’ll enjoy the hymn even…

  • When We Follow

    When We Follow God’s Plan

    When I was a child, the maps in my Bible got me through many a sermon. I was rarely interested in listening to the preacher, so I would flip to the back pages of the Bible to study the maps there. I would gaze at the contours of the lands of the Middle East. I…

  • My Coldest Night and Warmest Truth

    My Coldest Night and Warmest Truth

    As Michaela finished up her high school courses, she had to write an essay on an especially significant time in her life. She chose to write about the night her brother died. I asked if I could share it here and she was willing to have me to do so. I hope it will encourage…

  • A Family Update for an Especially Noteworthy Week

    A Family Update for an Especially Noteworthy Week

    Life brings us many stretches of time that are entirely ordinary. Not much happens in these times and they quickly fade from our memories. But then there is the occasional stretch where all sorts of consequential events take place in rapid succession. And as it happens, my family is heading into one of these right…

  • What Grows in the Local Church

    Many years ago I visited a store that featured a display of freshwater planted aquariums, and I immediately became enamored with them. I was entranced by the lushness of the plants that can grow underwater and by the symbiotic relationship of the aquatic flora and fauna. I had to have one. Eventually, I found a…

  • Give Me a Faith Like His

    Give Me a Faith Like His!

    You can only imagine what Joseph’s family thought. You can only imagine what the townsfolk thought. You can only imagine what the religious leaders thought. You can only imagine the laughter and the mocking, the rumors and the gossip, the scolding and the censure. And maybe we should imagine it. “Does he really expect us…

  • Pronoun Hospitality

    Should We Exercise “Pronoun Hospitality?”

    It’s a question each of us will have to face if we haven’t already—should I use another person’s preferred pronouns? For some the question will come up in a context that is innocuous, and the decision may involve no negative repercussions. But for some the question will come up in a context in which they…

  • Love Keeps No Record of Rights

    Love Keeps No Record of Rights

    We’ve heard it at both weddings and funerals, as both aspiration for a life lived together and as commemoration of a life lived well. In these two contexts and so many others we’ve heard the “love passage,” the Bible’s beautiful description of love enacted in the life of the Christian: “Love is patient and kind;…

  • In a Distant Land

    In a Distant Land

    The young woman entered her parent’s home for what she understood would be the final time. The funeral had been solemn but still sweet, for she knew that her father had at last joined her mother. It had been a good many years since death had parted them, but now they were together in the…

  • If Satan Took Up Marriage Counseling

    If Satan Took Up Marriage Counseling

    Every now and again I just can’t help myself—I respond to a clickbait headline and find myself reading an advice column. The question this time was from a woman who had become disillusioned with her husband and enamored with someone else. And as I read the columnist’s response I thought, “I’m pretty sure that’s exactly…

  • Breathe a Sigh of Relief or Recoil in Terror

    Breathe a Sigh of Relief or Recoil in Terror

    A single object can be a source of comfort to one person and a source of fear to another. The same object can make one person breathe a great sigh of relief and another to recoil in terror. The one holding tight to the grip of a gun feels very differently about this firearm than…

  • Love Your Wife

    When You Don’t Like Your Wife, Love Your Wife

    There may not be times in your marriage when you stop loving your wife, but there may be times in your marriage when you stop liking her—or when you stop acting like it, anyway. There may be times when you are easily irritated with her or times when you just can’t get along. There may…

  • You Might Be Legalistic

    Fourteen Signs That You Might Be Legalistic

    The thing about legalism is that it’s far easier and far more satisfying to spot in someone else’s life than in your own. We are masterful at identifying it and calling it out in other people, but not nearly so good at doing so in our own lives. In Pat Nemmers’ book Retractions he offers…

  • When the Sermon Fizzles Instead of Sizzles

    When the Sermon Fizzles Instead of Sizzles

    The sermon fizzles instead of sizzles. The text seems to become opaque rather than clear. The illustrations fall flat while the application somehow fails to strike the heart, the mind, or the hands. The pastor seems distracted and discouraged while the congregation seems uninterested and unmoved. I expect we have all sat through a few…

  • She Died Too Soon

    She Died Too Soon

    It is engraved on many tombstones, inscribed in many cards, expressed in many obituaries: He died too soon. She was taken before her time. Of all the mysteries in this universe, few are more perplexing than the mystery of God’s sovereignty over life and death. Why do some live to so advanced an age while…

  • Royalty in Disguise

    Royalty in Disguise

    The son of King Jeroboam had fallen deathly ill. His father was understandably worried, concerned to know whether his child would live or die. He knew just where to go for a trustworthy answer. Yet he also knew that he could not go himself. He came up with a devious plan: he would send his…

  • With Blistered Hands and Aching Backs

    With Blistered Hands and Aching Backs

    Many years ago a great sailing ship was crossing the Atlantic when it came to the treacherous Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Though this is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, it can all also be one of the most treacherous. Its waters are shallow and often blanketed by dense fog. Icebergs lurk…

  • All the Compassions of All the Tender Fathers

    All the Compassions of All the Tender Fathers

    We refer to the first person of the Trinity as “God the Father,” and it is important to understand that God’s fatherhood comes before any fatherhood among human beings. In other words, God did not create human fathers and then begin to describe himself in reference to them. Rather, God has always been Father and…

  • When You Do Not Dare To Go Alone

    When You Do Not Dare To Go Alone

    I was once told the story of a child who had been invited to spend a sunny summer day playing with his friends. He lived in a rural area and it took him a good bit of time to make the trek. But the child made his way toward his friends as they made their…